24 SOUNDNESS. 



chases a horse takes him at his own judgment, and has no remedy 

 against the seller, supposing the horse to turn out upon a future 

 trial or a more considerate inspection after the purchase, to be 

 worth less than the sum given ; unless he (the purchaser) can 

 2)rove he was induced to purchase by representations false within 

 the knowleds^e of the seller ; to fasten a fraud of which nature 

 upon an experienced dealer in horses is, however, a difficult matter*. 

 Warranties are of different kinds — express or implied, general or 

 special. An express warranty speaks for itself. And as for an 

 implied warranty, such a thing is hardly known, or, at least, rarely 

 taken advantage of in horse -dealing, the price paid, however high, 

 not being legally held to be any guarantee of the soundness of the 

 animal ; and any thing that might transpire between seller and 

 buyer, implying warranty, being worth nothing without proof, 

 which, being procured, would render the transaction, in law, tan- 

 tamount to an express warranty. A general warranty extends 

 to all defects and faults known and unknown to the seller ; but 

 a special warranty is confined in its operation to the parts or 

 particulars specifically pointed out. A horse may be warranted 

 of such an age ; or, having some defect visible upon his limbs, 

 such as a spavin, or a curb, or a fired leg, of which he does not 

 go lame at the time, that defect may be specified, and the horse 

 warranted not (within any reasonable or prescribed period) to 

 become lame in consequence of it. A general warranty, however, 

 affords no protection against such defects as are " plain and obvi- 

 ous" to every body, and, consequently, to the purchaser ; no more 

 than a special warranty does against any which are not included 

 or named in the specification. '' But if on the sale of a horse the 

 seller agree to deliver it sound and free from blemish at the ex^ 

 piration of a specified period, the warranty is broken by a fault 

 in the horse when delivered, although such defect was obvious at 

 the time of sale; and as some splints cause lameness and others 

 do not, a splint is not one of those plain defects against which a 

 warranty will not indemnify ; and when a seller warrants a horse 

 sound at the time of sale, and the horse afterwards becomes lame 

 from the effects of a splint, visible when the horse was bought, it 



* Tomlin's Popular Law Dictionarj-, 1838. 



